Many businesses are still learning about social media and how to leverage it to market their company.

Here are some tips to boost your effectiveness on social media channels.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

FACEBOOK

1. A fan page is for your company Facebook page; a profile page is for your personal page. Remember the difference, or Facebook will shut your page down. That would be a major “fail.

2. Use the real estate available to you: Put up a great profile pic, have a bio, and add links to your other sites.

3. Add pictures. Pictures enable people to see what your brand is about and realize it’s more than just a “logo.” Upload pictures from events, conferences, demos, and the regular everyday happenings at your business.

4. Be human! Don’t just post, post, post. No one wants to hear all about you, all the time. Ask questions, reply, and talk as you would in everyday life.

5. Share other people’s posts. Engage and demonstrate that you value content and opinions from others, too.

6. Connect your platforms. Did you write a blog post? Have it automatically post on your Facebook page so others can have access to it easily and quickly.

7. Have contests or other exciting giveaways or events, which encourage both online and offline participation with your brand via Facebook.

8. Update regularly, not occasionally. Fans grow accustomed to the regularity of posts; they will fall off your loyal fan wagon if you don’t keep up.

9. Use Facebook Insights to monitor your success with your fans and to see why and when your fans’ activity increases or decreases. It’s helpful for future campaigns and promotions.

10. Be relevant. Post content that provides value to your target audience, but also add some fun stuff, too. The 80/20 rule is a great way to start out: That’s 80 percent relevant content, 20 percent fun stuff.
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TWITTER

1. Get a Twitter handle as simple and close to the name of you or your brand as possible. Refrain from names like Tommy9373, because no one will remember it.

2. Again, use your real estate wisely. Have a relevant 140-character bio that catches the eye of your target audience; use a great picture for your profile, and because some people use Twitter.com versus Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc., make sure your Twitter background is up to par as well

.3. Be polite. Don’t just blast out information. Twitter is a place for all of us to share, listen, chat together, and engage with one another. Remember: The words “please” and “thank you” are just as welcome in this space.

4. Listen first; talk second. Set up columns in your Twitter apps, such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, to listen to your target audience easier and better. For example, have separate columns for clients, prospects, competition, etc.

5. Use hashtags for events, conferences, products, etc., to promote more and listen better to the things people are saying about your brand, product, event, and so on.

6. Retweet other people’s updates. It’s not all about your own content and opinion.

7. Give credit where credit is due when curating other people’s content.

8. Use a link shortener. It’s there to help you say more in this 140-character world.

10. Follow back! Don’t be too cool to follow, because on Twitter we’re all a little nerdy.
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BLOGGING

1. Create a strategy for the content you would like to cover in your blog. Focus on your marketing strategy and the value you would like to provide your target audience. This will help you avoid many of the common blogging mistakes.

2. Have an editorial calendar to keep track of topics, bloggers, and deadlines.

3. Invite guest bloggers to write posts. They will add some spice to your regular content.

4. Post regularly or people forget you have a blog.

5. Make sure your “share” buttons are easily visible so people can tweet, share, and like your posts.

6. Put the “subscribe” buttons in a place where they won’t get lost. That way people can click and subscribe quickly and easily.

7. Allow people to comment on your posts. Monitor them closely if you want to approve the comments before they’re made public.

8. Including headings, subheadings, and list posts capture people’s attention. They’re easier to read than long paragraph after long paragraph.

10. Show off your voice. Make it yours. Don’t be afraid to add a little pizzazz!
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PINTEREST

1. Create your Pinterest business profile – The first step in promoting your business on Pinterest is to create your business profile. Once you select the category of your business, enter all your company information, add a description, and set the images that are associated with your visual identity.

Also, don’t forget to add a link to your website in the descriptive part of your Pinterest profile!

2. Verify your business on Pinterest- Add a meta tag in the back-end of your website so that you can be found in the search results. You can find the option to verify your website under your profile settings.

3. Connect with other social networks-Connectivity will help you find your fans on other social networks and increase your online presence.

4. Mix your pins- For businesses, Pinterest is a way of presenting and sharing various visual information. Creativity is important, but the content should be relevant to the target audience.

Your followers on Pinterest will want to see a mix of content – pins related to your business and pins representing the culture of your company. But do not use Pinterest as an online catalog, mix your pins with pictures of your products and the lifestyle of your company.

5. Share infographics-Creating colorful, eye catching and informative infographics to share with people is another wonderful way to get your business noticed — especially if you put a small link back to your site on it.

6. Take advantage of Pinterest analytics-The more information the better. There are various analytic platforms available to collect a wealth of information about who you are reaching and how successful your overall campaign is.

The best one to start with is the analytics platform located inside your Pinterest account.

HELP YOUR BUSINESS GET SOCIAL!

Here’s a handy cheat sheet of the most
popular social media image sizes.

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